AFRICOM and African Invasion

[LeftAgain]

What do any of you know about the agenda of AFRICOM? Their Mission statement ("United States Africa Command, in concert with interagency and international partners, builds defense capabilities, responds to crisis, and deters and defeats transnational threats in order to advance U.S. national interests and promote regional security, stability, and prosperity.") is really scarey.

I am hearing that they are planning on using the Ebola epidemic as an excuse to invade Africa. The conspiracy folks are claiming that their plans were made in 2013 and they were just waiting for an appropriate excuse. They, the conspiracy folks, are referring to the following website as proof: http://www.africom.mil/newsroom/article/11471/pandemic-and-natural-disaster-response-plans-unveiled-in-nigeria.

[Lardlad95]

I doubt the US is planning on "invading" a continent of 1 billion people for a variety of reasons. However I do believe that they don't miss an opportunity to maintain and bolster their sphere of influence on the continent.

Africa has the youngest population, a number of rapidly developing nations with growing middle classes, and the growing interest of the US' new chief rival, China. Even without considering the resources or agricultural potential of the continent, western capitalists are salivating at the potential for cheap labor and new markets. They're just so excited at having an entire continent of consumers to rope in. http://www.bloomberg.com/video/africa-benefits-from-a-growing-middle-class-khan-iKpxfE3NSrqUxEUguPbM7g.html

Couple that with the military and its need for perpetual war, and suddenly you've got a new target to help maintain the empire.

Africa is ripe for market exploration in terms of resources, labor, and consumption. Africa is full of Islamic Radicals who need to be engaged. Africa has been getting a little too buddy buddy with China (guess who just helped to expand Lagos, Nigeria's subway system???).

Oh and guess what, West Africa is probably going to need some new medical infrastructure across the region. Sure Nigeria handled their outbreak with relative ease, but what about next time? What about its neighbors who can potentially disrupt business? Seems like this calls for a certain super power to expand the mission of Africom.


An invasion? Not in the conventional sense, but I do expect there to be a coordinated increase in US "relations" with a number of African nations, particularly Nigeria in the west and Kenya and Uganda in the east.

[Illegalitarian]

Economic expansionism in Africa by western (and eastern!) powers will not be as easy as it was in South America, but it's been happening for decades wrt resources and has slowly started to exploit West Africa's cheap labor and relatively stable, cooperative governments.



Africa though, like South America, has its own rich history of rebellion and resistance against colonial powers, so some free trade free-for-all wouldn't be the first time Africans have faced this sort of thing from developed world nations, and I imagine the resistance of old wasn't the last resistance of its kind we'll see in the continent.